1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to the field of electric motors.
2. Prior Art
Tecnomatic S.p.A., assignee of the present invention, has in the past made a limited number of motor stators and D.C. motor rotors using flat or square wire for the windings. In that regard, it is to be noted that as used herein, “flat” or “square” wire means wire having four substantially flat sides, each joined to adjacent sides, typically by a rounded edge. In the case of square wire, the wire may be formed in the square shape and then coated with typical winding insulation, or in some cases, pre-coated round wire has been rolled into the square shape. Rolling of round wire to a square shape has definite limits if the insulation is not to be damaged, though smaller rounded edges may be achieved if the wire is first formed by drawing or otherwise formed into the square shape and then coated. Even if the wire is first formed in the desired shape and then coated, some degree of rounding on the edges is desired for various reasons, including prevention of surface tension from pulling the coating away from the sharp edges during coating, preventing the sharp edges from cutting through the coating afterward, and preventing electric field concentration on the sharp edges to induce early breakdown. Thus, as used herein, the words “square” or “flat” or equivalent words used to describe the cross-section of an insulated copper wire are used in the general sense and are not to be construed as excluding significant or substantial rounded corners joining the substantially flat sides. “Flat” as used herein and in the claims means having two opposite sides having a greater separation than the other two opposite sides, its width being greater than its thickness. “Straight” as used herein and in the claims means substantially free of bends. Accordingly, either a flat or a square conductor may or may not be straight. “Rectangular” as used herein is a more general term meaning flat or square, square being a special case of rectangular wherein the dimension between two opposite sides is equal to the dimension between the other two opposite sides.
In the prior art stators, the wire has been cut to the desired length and stripped, then bent into a hairpin shape by hand on a one at a time basis, then the two legs of the hairpin separated one hairpin at a time and hand inserted into one end of a stator, with the stripped ends of the wires sticking out of the other end of the stator being all bent all in one row uniformly in one direction and all in the adjacent row uniformly bent in the opposite direction so interconnection of wires in the two rows forming a given phase could be welded, one at a time, to provide the stator windings. However, to bring out the connections to the phases, and to interconnect phases, the corresponding wires needed to be re-bent to isolate them from the connections within each phase, something again previously done by hand.
The use of the flat or square wire for the windings produces very efficient and high power to weight ratio motors because of the greater cross-section of copper that can be put into a winding slot. However, the procedure described above is slow and highly labor intensive, and not suitable for a mass produced motor.